“The types of compounds we are
exploring relate to what those working
in nuclear energy are thinking about.”
Researchers use depleted uranium
because it is less expensive and more
abundant than transition metals,
especially precious ones, such as gold,
iridium and platinum. Understanding
the reactivity of uranium-carbon
bonds is key to harnessing its chemical
potential to replace the expensive metals.

Bart’s group is one of only a few in the
United States studying the f-block, lower
elements, on the periodic table.

“This gives students an opportunity to
learn about these elements and their
activity, and to train them in safe-handling practices,” she says. | K.M.

URANIUM| With their hands in
glove boxes to protect their depleted
uranium compounds from oxygen and
moisture — and themselves from the
uranium — Suzanne Bart and her team
study how this radioactive element
forms new bonds with carbon, nitrogen
and oxygen.

“Our work is fundamental in nature,
with a broad range of potential energy
and catalysis applications,” says Bart,
an inorganic chemistry professor who
landed a 2012 Faculty Early Career
Development award from the National
Science Foundation.

“Some positive environmental and energy
impacts are possible,” she says of the
work in her lab, a brightly-lit facility in
Purdue’s Brown Laboratory of Chemistry.